Stefan Buttigieghttps://stefanbuttigieg.com
Official WebsiteSat, 10 Nov 2018 17:05:37 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.1144171287Becoming a Dadhttps://stefanbuttigieg.com/becoming-a-dad/
https://stefanbuttigieg.com/becoming-a-dad/#commentsSat, 10 Nov 2018 16:45:21 +0000https://stefanbuttigieg.com/?p=408Starting off this adventure in 2018 was a great milestone in my life, and one that I’m forever grateful to my wife and families(from both sides). The arrival of Jan Olivier Buttigieg was definitely one for the books.

I haven’t written in quite a while and this is a positive consequence of a goal that I had set off earlier on this year. To write one blog post per week on my official site. This turned out to be much more difficult than I planned it out to be. It was only now, in November, when I decided to take this task forward and make it happen.

A lot has happened this year and I have to say that even though I didn’t rock the Blogpost goal, I’ve made up for it in other goals. We had our first-born, travelled as a family, completed my two Masters, made it to numerous conferences, travelled across the globe(Taiwan and US), launched Malta’s first Digital Health Community, Health 2.0 Malta. So nothing to complain there.

What do I need to work on more? My health and focus

I need to take this a notch further and do the necessary effort as I tackle this next decade in my life and become a better version of myself.

A knee operation that I’ve done in 2012, followed by a lack of adherence from my side to the physiotherapy regime, cut me off from one of my favourite sports(Handball) and took me down the road of significantly reduced physical activity. To such an extent that now I’m getting closer to the fine line of overweight on the blessed BMI Scale.

From the focus point of view, I can do much more as I consistently change my work environments and roles. Time to narrow down on a more encompassing role within a single entity.

I’m grateful for 2018 but also happy that it’s getting closer to the end.

]]>https://stefanbuttigieg.com/becoming-a-dad/feed/2408Essential Skills in Medical Education for Students (ESMES)https://stefanbuttigieg.com/essential-skills-in-medical-education-for-students-esmes/
https://stefanbuttigieg.com/essential-skills-in-medical-education-for-students-esmes/#respondFri, 09 May 2014 15:06:30 +0000http://stefanbuttigieg.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/essential-skills-in-medical-education-for-students-esmes/Interesting thoughts about Medical Education Skills!
]]>https://stefanbuttigieg.com/essential-skills-in-medical-education-for-students-esmes/feed/03416 months in a Poland…..a well needed reflection! [Part 1]https://stefanbuttigieg.com/6-months-in-a-poland-a-well-needed-reflection-part-1/
https://stefanbuttigieg.com/6-months-in-a-poland-a-well-needed-reflection-part-1/#respondThu, 17 Apr 2014 12:50:41 +0000http://stefanbuttigieg.wordpress.com/?p=287Well it has been 6 months in Poland and yes time flew by so quickly especially when you have a big event to prepare for!

Life in Poland has been highlighted with a number of ups and downs and I would daresay that this time here has been quite enlightening.

I have been travelling quite a number of times here and I had the opportunity to go to the northern-most part of Poland and went multiple times to both Warsaw and Krakow. They are for sure amongst my favorite cities in Poland. The Startup scene in these cities is quite lively and a substantial amount of people meet on a weekly if not twice-weekly basis and discuss about startup ideas. No wonder people want to set up their technology startup in Poland. There is a feeling which for now might be the closest that I could ever get to the American Startup Scene.

So many people ask me: What is a Startup? and somehow quite a number of times, I was taken aback by this question and as if in a fleet of inspiration I remember this wonderful quote from Steve Blank about startups which says

A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model

Then again the next natural question is: What is a business model?

And the way I could explain that is by saying that it is rudimentary/basic essentials of a business plan which will give you the necessary vision and direction to lead your business in the right direction.

I can see we have veered of course here…..back again to my experience in Poland.

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend three conferences(Mobile Developer Conference, Mobile Trends Poland and Makerland) and 1-day Hackathon with one of the best names ever – ‘Hacktory’. All of these different opportunities and events have given me the necessary insight to understand better the Mobile Developer World and what it takes to take a project from concept to innovation. This process, which happens on a frequent basis during hack-a-thons, is truly a magical feeling and it’s my form of adrenaline to keep me innovating and pushing me forward to reach new frontiers.

Hack-a-thon? Is this a place where illegal activity takes place? No. Are people trying to hack into government and banking services? No, and if they would, they wouldn’t be so stupid to do it during a hackathon. It is an event which could last from a couple of hours to days where people are involved in collaborative programming and sometimes these people have never met before.

I had the opportunity to experience this twice to three times in this past 6 months and I am very lucky to say that they have been experiences which helped me grow as a person and which have made me understand quite a lot of aspects of the technology business and the wonderful mobile development world, where quite a lot of magic has been happening recently.

A quick thought about the conferences:

Mobile Central Europe was a truly wonderful experience and I had the opportunity to meet really great people there from all over the world. The best part of this is that all the workshops and lectures were held in English which made it much more comfortable for me to fit in this atmosphere and I honestly felt at home there. I was also lucky enough to meet the right group people to win a Hackathon and thanks to that I got a free ticket to Makerland on which I will talk about later.

In Poland, there are many people who know how to speak English quite well but the large majority of people find it very difficult to communicate in English which has made things a bit more challenging for me here. By the large majority, I am talking about people who work in the grocery shops, supermarkets, bus drivers, etc. These are the places where you spend quite a lot of time and sometimes it has made me nervous but over a significant period of time, I have learnt to embrace this.

Thanks to this, I have been able to learn quite a lot of Polish and despite the fact that I still find it challenging to talk in Polish, I have progressed to the stage where I can understand quite a lot from a conversation and I can answer back most often than not. This has led to a number of hilarious situations throughout the past 6 months(imagine Stefan attending a marriage course for 10 weeks in Polish) which I will remember for some time!

The 2nd conference which I had the opportunity to attend was known as the Mobile Trends Conference, and this took place in Krakow. Here the lectures were a mix of Polish and English, but there wasn’t the same atmosphere that I felt in the Mobile Europe Conference. Its as if there was something quite missing and I was quite nervous as the internet connection suffered quite a bit there(unlike the Mobile Europe Conference, where the internet was quite flawless I would dare say), as I was trying to live-blog the event.

The last conference that I was to was Makerland. It was truly a wonderland of hardware technology namely 3D printers, robots, arduino(small and feature packed micro controllers) and so much more. It was a really great insight into the future of hardware and the magnificent realisation that the offline/physical world is getting closer and closer to the digital/online world through so many different interfaces. The future is truly exciting in this manner and I can’t wait to be a part of it. I also had the great company of my maltese colleague and visionary Jeffrey Dalli.

I have run out of thoughts…..I will post some more next week

]]>https://stefanbuttigieg.com/6-months-in-a-poland-a-well-needed-reflection-part-1/feed/0287It’s the doctor’s fault.https://stefanbuttigieg.com/its-the-doctors-fault/
https://stefanbuttigieg.com/its-the-doctors-fault/#respondTue, 25 Feb 2014 21:50:01 +0000http://stefanbuttigieg.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/its-the-doctors-fault/A post worth noting!
]]>https://stefanbuttigieg.com/its-the-doctors-fault/feed/0286Why do I think that it’s worth paying for some applications……especially when it comes to Sleeping.https://stefanbuttigieg.com/why-do-i-think-that-its-worth-paying-for-some-applications-especially-when-it-comes-to-sleeping/
https://stefanbuttigieg.com/why-do-i-think-that-its-worth-paying-for-some-applications-especially-when-it-comes-to-sleeping/#respondSat, 14 Dec 2013 12:19:22 +0000http://stefanbuttigieg.wordpress.com/?p=243I get to encounter people on a regular basis asking me for the best apps on the app store and when I get to the point that I tell them that they need to pay a certain amount, their eyes seem to grow with surprise and even though I try to argue the fact that some of these applications cost about as much as two or three cups of coffee(some of them will even pay you back with sanity and easier workflow), they still don’t seem to like it.

The price of software we use on a daily basis has actually gone down. We used to pay 50 EUR for the latest game! In fact, I remember that for Fifa 1998, I had paid about 20 Maltese Lira to purchase the game(I was a good boy most of the time, wasn’t really a fan of pirating software) and today, 15 years later you can actually get FIFA for free on the iOs App Store. Of course, they needed to find a way to get the money otherwise they would be unable to pay their staff, and this is done through the in-app purchases which you have the option to make use of to enhance or facilitate your game experience.

Great Software is worth the money you pay for and you observe this in the quality of the software you use. And I’d like to take the opportunity to start suggesting some paid applications which are truly worth your investment and which I pretty much use on at least a weekly basis(and some even on a daily basis).

I will go to straight to the point, it costs 1.79€ but it saves 1000s of Euros on productive sleep!

As shown in the picture above, this app works by putting your phone in the corner your bed and connected to your charger, so really and truly you’re hitting two birds with one stone. Good sleep and charging your phone for the next day! And this app has grown to be so specialized over the last two years that it can even provide you with soothing sounds(this features is known as ‘Sleep Aid’) to help you go to sleep(these don’t work with me unfortunately haha).

Not everyone is the same but it’s usually quite reliable when it comes to helping you wake up as it helps you decide the time interval required for you to sleep which can be modified from 10 to 90 minutes.

The developer who has a Polish name(not sure if he’s living in Poland) has been on top of things when it comes to app, and he updated his app in the early weeks of the release of the new iOs 7 operating system which shows his dedication and commitment to keep on developing this wonderful software.

]]>https://stefanbuttigieg.com/why-do-i-think-that-its-worth-paying-for-some-applications-especially-when-it-comes-to-sleeping/feed/0243Spotify has arrived to the Maltese Islands! Rejoice!https://stefanbuttigieg.com/spotify-has-arrived-to-the-maltese-islands-rejoice/
https://stefanbuttigieg.com/spotify-has-arrived-to-the-maltese-islands-rejoice/#respondFri, 13 Dec 2013 23:12:10 +0000http://stefanbuttigieg.wordpress.com/?p=230This week I had the pleasure to finally install Spotify on my iPad and iPhone and I just can’t stop playing all kinds of music playlists. It truly seems that I’ve been missing out quite a lot!

Luckily, I’ve been able to access Spotify on my Mac from Poland without any hitches and from Malta was using a VPN service to be able to access the service. Having a mobile Spotify experience is truly one of the best music experiences you can get.

And to make things even more interesting,Spotify has decided to provide free unlimited music streaming to mobile devices! CNET covered the announcement in the most unbiased way possible

In the coming few weeks, I will start posting on a regular basis about what’s going in the world of Health Informatics and how it can be used in such a way as to improve healthcare and ultimately saving more lives!

]]>https://stefanbuttigieg.com/what-i-am-passionate-about-health-informatics/feed/0228MOOCshttps://stefanbuttigieg.com/moocs/
https://stefanbuttigieg.com/moocs/#respondWed, 13 Feb 2013 20:18:42 +0000http://stefanbuttigieg.wordpress.com/?p=197Recovering from major knee surgery and being away from work gives you a lot of time.

A lot.

Recently, I had subscribed to a number of Massively Open Online Courses on coursera.org which I didn’t have so much time to dedicate to beforehand. Work drains your energy and after a days work, the last thing that you feel like doing is learning. But alas, now I’m unable to go to work and a good chunk of time which had been previously filled by work had to find new pastures. And there comes along, MOOCs(along with a subscription to lynda.com and an amazing subscription offer at udemy.com).

And, yes, time is flying fast. It has already been 5 days since my operation and equipped with my new Macbook (the true productivity machine which was enhanced by the fact that I had the opportunity to do a 6-hour long training programme on lynda to learn all the features of this wonderful machine).

Bring on the learning!

One more thing, I’m doing two courses which I’m focusing on right now:

These MOOCs are giving me an insight into what I’m passionate about, that is , Technology. And, it is providing me with the opportunity to have a full 360 degree view of how technology affects peoples lives and how it bothers and empowers them. Equipped with this knowledge, I truly believe that I can be a better advocate of technology.

If you are thinking of taking one of these MOOCs. The following video is a friendly and great video guide:

]]>https://stefanbuttigieg.com/my-macbook-pro/feed/0193The importance of the art of communication amongst educatorshttps://stefanbuttigieg.com/the-importance-of-the-art-of-communication-amongst-educators/
https://stefanbuttigieg.com/the-importance-of-the-art-of-communication-amongst-educators/#respondSun, 12 Feb 2012 17:23:55 +0000http://stefanbuttigieg.wordpress.com/?p=166Have you ever been in a situation as a student where you are called out to help out with the lecturer to set up the power point presentation or trying to point out to the lecturer how he puts the power point into slideshow mode and shouting “F5” (shortcut key to start a powerpoint presentation in Microsoft Power Point). Is this familiar to you? Well this is pretty much the situation in most schools and universities around the world.

The point I want to make out of this is the following : How do you expect to educate using a medium that you barely know how to operate?

Sometimes I am called out during lectures to help out with setting up the presentation and every time I get up to do it, I feel as if someone is hitting my head with a brick to keep me comatose for the rest of the lecture. The rules of engagement with the audience are somehow broken at that point in time as the educator is trying to pass on the message to us.

This following video from Youtube pretty much sums up all the rules of engagement between the educator and students as they’re being broken :

Being an educator sometimes is more than just knowing your stuff from inside out, it’s also about how much you are able to communicate the information. Once again, it’s a question on why you want to do it, and not how to do it.

Before I started writing this post I was focused on the fact that educators have to know how to pass on the message, that is by being digitally literate and able to operate the laptop or computer in an efficient manner so as to be able to convey their message, but the truth is, that it’s not enough, although it could be a starting point to effective communication and one of the tools which could be used.

In fact I realized this as I was doing the habitudes for communicators assessment, as the different questions reminded me how effective communication is more than anything an art, an art which right now is not that much practised and which needs to be learnt by most of the educators. Different elements of any form of communication involve the use of storytelling, being able to deal with one’s nervousness to talk effectively(since talking in front of people does go against our human nature), being passionate on the subject you’re talking about, giving incentives to the audience and much much more.

So what is the solution?

The solution is to start from myself. I’m grabbing a copy of the book “Habitudes for Communicators” once it’s available for the Kindle. Once I read the book, I’ll try and share the knowledge in the best way I can.

Educators out there(and that practically refers to everyone from parents to politicians). If you really want to bring a change with the information you want to share, be ready to take some time for yourself and ask yourself whether you are an effective communicator. Let’s start a culture of effective communication. And remember, be passionate on what you talk about!